Valkyrie Burning (Warrior's Wings Book Three) Read Online Free Page A

bunker just behind Kormon, lightly rapping the Israeli commando on the shoulder, then pointing to the closest hatch in the building. The Shaytet-13 naval commando nodded, his assault carbine to his shoulder as he strode quickly along the curving surface of the wall to the hatch and tested it quickly with one hand.
    “Sealed, sir,” Korman growled.
    The former SEAL nodded, tapping Korman on the back. “One side.”
    Kormon nodded, pivoting out of the way as Crow moved in, his weapon whispering almost silently as he spotted a mobile recon probe floating around the corner of a building. The subsonic rounds from the assault carbine tore through the lightweight armor of the floater, ripping it apart in a flash as they destroyed its energy cell.
    It was still fluttering in pieces to the ground as the Israeli moved on, seeking other targets as the nuclear mushrooms rose up in the distance, grey shadows against the almost black sky. Korman spared a second to wonder if Able and Mackenzie had gotten clear before the retaliation, but then shook it off and kept his focus tight on the present.
    “Fire in the hole,” Crow said, causing Korman to jerk around, then dart to one side as the SEAL ducked and covered.
    The explosion was soft, almost quiet as the shaped charge went off, cutting the armor of the hatch with a plume of superheated gas. The door buckled in noticeably, then suddenly blasted open and out as the plume cut through the sealant and acted like a jet engine on the hatch itself. The smoke hadn’t even started to clear when Kormon ducked through the squat hatch, weapon firing as he moved.
    Crow followed him, pushing through the smoke and into the corridor beyond, noting the grey slime on the walls and the four Ghoulies lying splayed out in their dying positions along the length of the hall.
    “This way, sir,” Korman said quietly. “Strong EMF right down the hall. Probably command and control.”
    “Lead the way, Corporal,” Crow said, stepping over a grey alien corpse. “I’m right behind you.”
    The Israeli commando nodded curtly, his carbine sweeping back up to his shoulder as he advanced down the corridor. It wasn’t strictly required to move in that way. The interface between the armor he wore and the weapon he carried would let him accurately aim the rifle from nearly any position; even firing from the hip was fiendishly accurate when combined with the HALO system and the armor’s HUD. For most soldiers, though, especially those who trained through elite counter-terrorist and special warfare units, proper positioning of their weapon was drilled constantly, with or without armor.
    They’d all been in situations where the tactical network was buggy, jammed, or just not available for some reason. Proper motions, even when they weren’t required, were the way the men and women of the Special Operations teams stayed alive when their fancy toys broke down.
    They had four sealed hatches to clear before they could even look in the direction of the EMF sources, which posed the two Operators with a problem. Working in a warzone without significant backup gave Lieutenant Crow his operational parameters, so he flipped the hatches open as they passed them and tossed a frag in each before sealing it shut and moving on.
    The muffled crumps of the grenades going off cleared the rooms as they passed, permanently and terminally.
    The final hatch started to open just as Crow closed the fourth one, one of the thick grey limbs appearing from the other side as the grenade went off. The Ghoulie hissed audibly, though how it managed that without a mouth neither Crow nor Korman had the slightest clue. Just as the hatch opened to its widest point, Korman triggered off a three-round burst from the twelve-millimeter carbine, the silent rounds stitching the alien along its squat torso, kicking it back through the door. Korman followed the alien before it even hit the ground, shouldering the hatch open roughly as he swung the rifle in